A childcare deserts are simply places where it is difficult to find childcare – there are far too many children and not enough childcare providers with openings. The Center for American Progress defines this as a neighborhood “with more than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no child care providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots.”
Our Childcare Desert Index compares the capacity of registered childcare providers to the estimated number of children under the age of 11 in the area. If the index is positive, there are more childcare slots than children; if the index is negative, there are more children than childcare slots. A large negative Childcare Desert Index indicates that there are many more children than childcare slots, while a small negative Childcare Desert Index indicates that there are just a few more children than childcare slots.
The map below displays this Childcare Desert Index for all 99 Iowa Counties. The Census Bureau divides each county into Census Tracts. The Census Bureau designs Census Tracts so they typcially have a population somewhere between 1,200 and 8,000 people. The map also displays the Childcare Desert Index for all Census Tracts in Iowa.
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